Wabash Valley hires John Spruance as men’s basketball coach

Wabash Valley chose a coach built for the grind of junior-college roster building, hiring John Spruance to lead a program that has lived at the top of NJCAA Division I for decades. The Warriors made the move on June 17, 2026, and the fit is clear: Spruance arrives with Midwest recruiting roots, NCAA assistant experience and a job description that starts with keeping Wabash Valley in the national conversation.

Spruance comes to Mount Carmel after a stint at the University of Southern Indiana, where he had been an assistant since the 2020-21 season, and after earlier assistant work at the University of Indianapolis. Wabash Valley’s own coach page casts him as entering his first season as head coach and labels him one of the Midwest’s most respected recruiters, player developers and program builders. That profile matters in a sport where one recruiting class can change a season and where a coach has to find immediate contributors while still building toward the next wave.

For Wabash Valley, the hire is about more than replacing a coach. It is about preserving the standard set by a program that won the 2001 NJCAA Division I national championship and went 36-1 under Jay Spoonhour in 2000-01. The school’s past seasons archive also shows multiple 30-win runs across different eras, including seasons under Mark Coomes and Dan Sparks, which helps explain why the opening drew so much weight inside the junior-college game.

The current roster reality is part of that pressure. Wabash Valley’s 2025-26 team entered the coaching change at 15-13 overall and 10-4 in conference play, with Terrance McGee listed as the 2023-24 coach in the archive. At a place that has already produced players such as Tony Allen, Antawn Barber and Nick Woods, the next coach is expected to keep that pipeline moving from Mount Carmel to major NCAA programs and, in some cases, the NBA.

Spruance said he was honored to be trusted with one of the premier junior-college basketball programs in the country and pointed to Wabash Valley’s “rich tradition of excellence.” That is the language of a coach who understands the assignment. The NJCAA Division I men’s championship dates to 1948, and at a program with a title, a 36-1 benchmark season and a history of elite player movement, Wabash Valley is betting that a Midwest evaluator with deep regional ties can keep the Warriors winning while reshaping the roster for the next two seasons.